Majestic

Microsoft brought me the news this morning of Majestic Wines being sold on to a private equity operation from the US, leaving the founder to concentrate on his online wine company, Naked Wines. £100m for an operation which had a turnover of £300m last year. It would be interesting to be able to take a peek at the balance sheet and see what one was getting, what mixture of real estate, stock, furniture, fittings and goodwill?

As it happened we took most of a bottle of their 'Saint-Aubin Blanc 1er Cru 2016 Domaine Gérard Thomas et Filles' last evening, to give us a break from our (entirely satisfactory) house wine, 'Villa Maria 2018 Sauvignon Blanc'. Very good it was too. Long may it last!

The shop is convenient for us, having a car park and being a few minutes drive away. A stock that suits our pockets and palettes. Friendly and helpful staff who remind one of the more or less late lamented Oddbins - an operation which appears to have eschewed the current fashion for capitalising the second half of its two-word name.

But its former neighbour, Staples, did not long survive the split into a shop half and an online half, shutting a few months ago, as noticed at reference 1. Furthermore, by some sad coincidence, the latest incarnation of formerly decent public house, the Plough & Harrow, appears to be in trouble far left, in the throes of yet another stop-go refurbishment. At least the outpost of the Elaine School in the middle continues to do well, with the continuing strong demand for dancers in both the far east and our floating care homes. Not what used to be called the white slave trade at all.

PS: as it turns out, it took very few seconds to turn up Majestic Wines balance sheet for 2018, snapped left, then valuing the company at around £120m, of which near £100m was stock, near £50 was goodwill and near £50m was property and plant. Then there were a few liabilities. A turning up which will presumably no longer be possible once the company disappears from public view, inside a private equity operation, allowed to do its business in private. Let's hope they are not really an asset stripping operation.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/office-outlet.html.

Reference 2: https://www.nakedwines.com/. 'Naked Wines is a customer funded wine business. Our customers fund independent winemakers in return for exclusive access to delicious wines at wholesale prices'. Hmmm.